Job #: req25376
Organization: World Bank
Sector: Agriculture
Grade: EC2
Term Duration: 1 year 0 months
Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment
Location: Washington, DC,United States
Required Language(s): English
Preferred Language(s):
Closing Date: 12/20/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org
The Sustainable Development Practice Group
The Sustainable Development (SD) Practice Group (PG) helps countries tackle their most complex challenges in the areas of Agriculture and Food, Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resources & Blue Economy, Environmental and Social Framework, Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience & Land, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, and Water.
PROJECT BACKGROUND – FOLUR
The global food system is critical for improving food security, nutrition, poverty alleviation and income generation – all key needs to achieve the social, economic and environmental aspects of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the food system is facing a significant threat from a variety of complex issues such as the expansion of commodity production, misaligned incentives, poor governance issues. It has led to a myriad of challenges such as deforestation, loss of habitat, together with land and soil degradation. Multiple global stakeholders and institutions have recognized the importance of working on these challenges: governments, large companies, and international organizations as well as local producers, smallholders, research organizations, consumer advocacy groups and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Therefore, to respond directly to these challenges and build on the existing baseline, the GEF has developed the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program (IP), which seeks to promote sustainable integrated landscapes and efficient food value chains at scale.
The FOLUR IP, to be implemented by the World Bank, has two main elements – a Global Knowledge to Action Platform Project (hereafter referred to as the Global Platform/GP) and 27 Country Projects (CPs) – designed to tackle the dual challenges of achieving a global food system built on sustainable land use practices and productive, resilient landscapes.
The Global Platform, working with the CPs aims to offer capacity building, technical assistance, resource mobilization, and knowledge exchange will help to address the defined needs for more concerted collective action, coordinated and integrated interventions, scaled up investment with a faster pace and greater impact.
To complement this investment, the World Bank (with funding from the FOLUR Global Platform Trust Fund) is providing Bank-executed support for key advisory and capacity building activities under the umbrella of the Global Platform (GP). FOLUR GP activities are designed to increase the practical skills of country project (CP) teams/ implementers and the collective understanding of needed actions across countries through the Community of Practice (CoP). This will result in more integrated efforts to improve landscape management and restoration efforts, expansion of multi-stakeholder dialogue processes, and technical assistance and innovations to catalyze action.
To support implementation of Global Platform, World Bank is seeking an Extended Term Consultant who can support the implementation of various activities and related to the coordination activities for various regional/annual meeting.
The ETC will be responsible for:
• Assist the World Bank Project Task Team Leaders (TTL) in developing M&E framework and reporting mechanism to monitor progress of the global program. The consultant will also be responsible for liaising with different program stakeholders to collect data for reporting annual progress.
• Provide operational support to the TTLs in conducting periodical budget analysis; report writing/preparation of presentations, support steering committee meetings, and coordination activities for regional meetings/annual meeting.
• Provide support in reviewing technical reports for various technical consultancies envisaged under the project and reviewing of expected outputs and reports submitted.
• Provide support in preparation of program annual report and annual progress review.
• Monitor program activities in the World Bank operations portal and suggest changes, if required, to keep the program portal up to date and relevant.
• Perform any other duties that may be assigned by the Task Team Leaders related to technical support in project implementation and coordination activiti
The consultant will be mapped to the World Bank’s AGF GP Unit. However, in addition to the activities mentioned above, the ETC will also support another ENB program. The details are as follows:
Project Background – AEHPMP – 40%-time allocation
Africa’s economy is growing rapidly, however its industry is heavily dependent on imports of chemicals. Africa’s economic growth stabilized at 3.4 in 2019 and was forecast to rise to 4.1 percent in 2020. Due to the formidable challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, economic growth is expected to contract to between -2.1 and -5.1% in 2020. The industrial sector is progressively gaining ground and represents 4 to 32 percent of the national Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) in most African countries. But many countries import chemicals for industrial, domestic, and agricultural uses. As a result, the region has witnessed a significant increase in the trade of hazardous materials, with serious impacts on environment and health. Among the most critical pollution management issues in Sub-Saharan Africa are those related to mercury use in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector, and management of electronic waste (e-waste).
The mismanagement of mercury and e-waste in Sub-Saharan countries have devastating impacts at the regional scale. These are regional-level problems, which cannot be solved through the efforts of single countries; they require joint and coordinated efforts across countries and at the regional level. To respond to this urgent need, the World Bank project will implement a regional approach to improve the management and reduce exposure to mercury and uPOPs. This approach will promote harmonization of policies and regulations across countries; will disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge and best practices to reduce harmful emissions; and will leverage finance to scale up these practices after the end of the project. These actions will be conducted through a knowledge platform dedicated to facilitating the coordination and alignment of countries’ activities with the existing sound practices. While the platform will be managed by the Bank in the first few project years, efforts will be made to identify and appoint a regional institution – e.g. AU, ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC, or SADC – to manage it on a long-term basis, thus ensuring regional ownership in the promotion of lessons learned and good practices in the management of chemicals.
To support implementation of knowledge platform in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Senegal, World Bank is seeking an Extended term consultant who can support the implementation of various activities and related to the coordination activities for various regional knowledge exchange meetings.
The ETC is expected to perform following activities:
• Assist the World Bank Project TTL in the implementation of all activities related to knowledge exchange meetings and regional coordination activities including developing the M&E framework.
• Provide operational support to the TTL in coordination activities for regional meetings.
• Provide support in reviewing technical reports for various technical consultancies envisaged under the project and reviewing of expected outputs and reports submitted.
• Perform any other duties that may be assigned by the TTL related to technical support in project implementation activities.
Selection Criteria
• A master’s degree or a PhD in Agricultural sciences or international development– related field of study; natural resource management, etc.
• Not less than 5 years of relevant professional experience related to agriculture and working experience in international organizations, government, consulting or private sector will be desirable.
• Experience in World Bank operations is desirable.
• Competence in project management is desirable.
• A few years of academic experience / technical report writing is desirable.
• Good analytical approach to technical details and ability to arrive at situations and propositions.
• Excellent interpersonal communications and coordination skills.
• Computer literate and conversant with Microsoft Office, and relevant databases and spreadsheets.
For information about WBG Core Competencies, please visit: https://bit.ly/2kbIA7O
Note: The selected candidate will be offered a one-year appointment, renewable at the discretion of the World Bank Group, and subject to a lifetime maximum ET appointment of three years. If an ET appointment ends before a full year, it is considered as a full year toward the lifetime maximum. Former and current ET staff who have completed all or any portion of their third-year ET appointment are not eligible for future ET appointments..
World Bank Group Core Competencies
The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
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